Some 11.5 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, according to the latest edition of the World Prison Population List (WPPL), researched and compiled by Helen Fair and Roy Walmsley and published on 1 December 2021 by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), at Birkbeck, University of London.
What explains the world’s rising prisoner numbers? Does prison overcrowding impact public health? How has the pandemic affected prisoners and prisoner numbers? All countries use prison as a response to crime and disorder, but to vastly differing extents. Countries face similar dilemmas in how to deal effectively with crime, yet they make widely different policy choices in response – choices with huge societal impacts.
The prisons research team at the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) at Birkbeck, University of London has published new research on measures taken to control the risk of COVID-19 in prisons, and their impact on prisoners’ health and wellbeing. The research covers a diverse group of countries across five continents and includes first-hand accounts of how life in custody changed from March 2020.
ICPRs latest comparative research on the sentencing of burglary, drug importation and murder highlights vast disparities between different jurisdictions in their approaches to custodial sentencing across a range of offences. Here, Catherine Heard discusses some of the most striking disparities.
The Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) at Birkbeck, University of London has published a report revealing vast disparities between countries in their approaches to criminal sentencing, with important implications for justice reform.
Professor Mike Hough, Emeritus Professor and Founder of Birkbeck’s Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) explains how thousands of prisoners are still facing injustice, ten years after IPPs’ failings were first exposed, and endorses latest demands for action.
We are compiling a list of news articles, guidance and other resources from around the world on COVID-19 and prisons. This will be updated regularly.
Online panel discussion & questions: hosted by Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image and the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, School of Law, Birkbeck.
An article by Catherine Heard on the impacts of COVID-19 on prison populations and wider justice systems worldwide has been published in a special, open access issue of the American journal Victims & Offenders.
In this searing documentary film, former prisoners, prison guard whistle-blowers and an investigative journalist paint a shocking picture of South Africa's first privatized prison, Mangaung, in Bloemfontein.